MANILA, Philippines (UPDATED) – The University of the East (UE) Lady Warriors finally scored a breakthrough win in the UAAP Season 81 women’s volleyball tournament. 

The Lady Warriors barged into the win column by defeating the Adamson Soaring Falcons in 4 sets, 20-25, 28-26, 25-23, 25-22, on Wednesday, February 27, at the Filoil Flying V Centre. 

Judith Abil topscored for UE with 22 points while Me-an Mendrez and Zilfa Olarve chipped in 14 points apiece.

 “Malaking bagay ito sa amin. Reward nila ito sa sarili nila na nakakuha na kami ng panalo. Paghahandaan ulit namin ang next games namin,” said UE head coach Karl Dimaculangan after the Lady Warriors climbed to 1-2.

(This is big for us. They’ve rewarded themselves with this win. We’ll prepare hard again for our next games.)

Eli Soyud had 20 points off 14 spikes, 4 blocks and 2 aces in the losing effort as Adamson fell to a 0-3 hole. 

Even if the Lady Warriors dropped the opening set, they immediately bounced back by outlasting Adamson in an extended second-set win. Back-to-back errors by Adamson’s Krich Macaslang and Bernadette Flora proved crucial as momentum shifted to UE. 

The Lady Falcons tried to get back on track in the 3rd frame but gave up an early 8-6 lead. Flora attempted to close the gap, 18-20, but the Lady Warriors held on until Sel Baliton and Zilfa Olarve won the set for a 2-1 match advantage.

Adamson, though, looked poised to extend the match to a deciding set before a crucial error of serving outside of the court by Gracelchen Ave halted the Lady Falcons’ momentum.

UE then nabbed the lead after Nikka Yandoc commited an attack error with her drop shot attempt.

From there, the Lady Warriors never looked back as Jasmine Alcayde brought it to match point and Soyud’s wide attack ended the match in favor of UE. – Rappler.com